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Sunday, April 1, 2012

Sunday Salon: Books, books, books

Happy April! I just spent 4 days at the Left Coast Crime mystery conference and had loads of fun. I think the median age of the participants was 50ish which mean lots of nice, friendly, classy people who enjoyed talking about writing and books. I met quite a few new to me authors and came away with quite a few books.

Unfortunately my iphone pictures all came out fuzzy. I'm blaming it on the dim lighting and mustard colored walls, which is my only complaint about the whole conference. I had fun working the registration desk and chatting with everyone coming in. The writers workshop with Jennifer Fischer and Alexandra Sokoloff was very educational and had scads of fun eating lunch with 4 other writers and talking about, what else but, writing. Now I reading Alex'sScreenwriting Tricks for Authors and Writing Love and have lots of homework to do. After the Deep Story class I took through Savvy authors and the complicated 18 scene structure, her 3 act structure made a heck of lot more sense.

The panels were informative and entertaining and enjoyed listening to James Rollins, Jacqueline Winspear and Rhys Bowen talk about their research process. Robin Burcell, (Left Coast Crime's Co-chair), George Fong (retired FBI) and other retired detectives talked about law enforcement and forensics. Dick Lochte, Cara Black, and Janet Dawson chatted about private eyes and Allison Brennan, Deborah Coonts and Terry Odell amusing talk about sex in mysteries. The highlight of the conference (for me) was James Rollins interview with John Lescroart (which is french and pronounced “less-kwah”.) They are both characters, very amusing and John's advice - write every day, finish the book, and everyone should read Elmore Leonard.

It's Read a Russian Author month on 52 Books in 52 Weeks and I'm diving into Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. Also listening to audiobook Loyalty in Death by J.D. Robb. I love Eve Dallas and Roark.

Today life returns to normal and it's time to concentrate on the taxes, work out my goals for ROW80, write posts and prepare lessons for the week. Tomorrow I'll be posting my goals for the next round of A Round of Words in 80 days and Wednesday will be posting a review of Frank Peretti's new book Illusion along with a giveaway. Also Frank Peretti will be making a guest appearance on Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks for his ASK FRANK blog tour answering questions about Illusion and the story behind the story.

But before I do any of that:

Sit in reverie and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow